Archive for the ‘Event Photography’ Category

I ran across the complete explanation for going with a professional photographer the other day… quite by accident. I was catching a rerun of the Red and Green Show the other night and Red was explaining the difference between reliable and unreliable methods of repair to some object using his famous Duct Tape.

“Do it the right way and you get the Grapes of Wrath“, he said. (A Nobel, Pulitzer, and Literary Award winning book/movie.)

“Do it wrong and you get the Wrath of Grapes.” (See here, here** , or here for citations.)

You could also check this out for a little eyewitness testimony on the subject of being out of your league as an amateur photographer: Seattle Bride Magazine.

Just to fend off the Best Buy crowd a little… Check this link outhere. As Ken puts it; “…There is nothing wrong with being an amateur photographer. Many of them are better than professionals…” And certainly “most amateurs have better equipment than professional photographers…”. But, as we all know equipment does not make photographs, eyes, hearts, and brains do.

Recounting the last few jobs I have worked… Here are some topics that are not in the latest book of TIPS on how to make great photographs….

1) Client does not know what they want… they are hiring you for your expertise… If you have no expertise perhaps you should pass on the job?

2) Client is drunk during the photo shoot… How do you handle that.

3) Or worse, the client has a talent agent who thinks he knows more about photography than you do. How do you handle that?

4) Computer breaks during print on site job.

5) Camera refuses to record pictures.

6) Lens fails.

7) It’s dark outside. How do I make photos without people looking like deer in headlights?

8) You know in your heart the shadow on the side of everyone’s head in vertical compositions is the sign of a equipment poor, unskilled photographer. How do you make it not happen?

The answer is right here: Read this blog.

Additionally, I might add that here is a link to a pretty good sized blog that is absolute proof that good photography trumps photoshop. Trying to “fix” poor photography does not work.

We made more than 6000 photographs in the 5 day convention at 4 venues, including the Washington State Convention Center, Museum of Flight, and the Seattle Sheraton… plus numerous party locations.

Poorly engineered marketing plan #1:

Mike tries to become famous signing autographs of the published MacPherson Photos…

The only strategy left (to becoming famous) is to get sued by MacPherson for diluting her trademark, or causing confusion between our “brands” so that when the public thinks of her they automatically and intrinsically think of me too. What do you think? Can this happen?

We needed a front page photo for the INTA daily newspaper at their 131st convention. Mind numbing images one person at a microphone after another came into view all day… And even this seminar on how to make a presentation went bad with the sound system failing and people scattered all over the stage…. Not to mention the really poor background, fire extinguisher, and doors (that I took out).

Then it occurred to me that if we could just get all the participants to play along for 5 minutes after their presentation we could condense the whole thing into one shot and sucessfully tell their story.

There is, of course, no better time to shoot pictures (i prefer “make” pictures) than when the sun is on the deck… You only have a few minutes and you need to explain this to your clients… it’s not negotiable.. there is only a 20 to 40 minute window.

I was keeping my eye on the sun for almost an hour. Then it was time. They were not to happy that I made them get up from dinner to make this photo… but they liked it after they saw it…. This was a first place photo for me wherever I entered it.